Google what b-roll is and you’ll see that “it is essential in narrative features to create a sense of time and place and to add layers of meaning to a story.”
When we think about life, we think mainly about the starting points and accomplishments. But we hear so very often to “enjoy the ride”. The ride could be any combination of the daily mundane, errands, simple pleasures and maybe even stumbles. And it’s the ride that is b-roll. As someone who is a creative and who is constantly documenting life – I know that b-roll is life.
As much as I love running and want to do more of it, use it to challenge myself through stretch goals and discipline – there are some things about running I haven’t shared.
Just a quick fun/sarcastic take on the others side of running!
You are usually wanting to sleep by 10am
You probably feel guilty on rest days
You are always recovering from running (baths, foam rolling & theragunning)
As a working mom, blogger, etsy shop owner, wife, home owner – I’ve become really aware of how mindfulness plays into my day. My ability to focus, being intentional, doing this without rushing and not multi-tasking. I know mindfulness is important to me because it’s helped me have a greater enthusiasm for life and higher self esteem. Read on to learn some activities I’ve started incorporating mindfulness to help me observe my thoughts & practice the art of leisure.
Mindful art / art therapy
I’m still guilty of multi tasking. But I’ve found when I’m making art (painting, mixed media, photography) I don’t actually multi task! Making art is a great way to express myself beyond words. It encourages us to be present in the moment & experiences, through noticing the sensations we are experiencing as well as how our art (the way the paint moves or how the picture I just captured looks on my digital display) responds to our input.
Listening to solfeggio music:
Ever step into a spa and feel immediately relaxed? Spas help you relax because of their environment. And part of that environment is the music! I recently found solfeggio music and how the different tones can help you promote benefits to different parts of the mind and body. The use of tones and frequencies music dates back to ancient Sanskrit chants (read: Om) but the modern science is fascinating. Apparently DNA become more healthy (ie show increased UV absorption) when they were exposed to different tones (such as the Sanskrit chants). Further research confirmed that the certain frequencies of the Earth’s ionosphere matched that of the human brain wave patterns! (Notably the frequency that encourages cell regeneration & healing) Most musical instruments were tuned to match the earth’s vibrational frequency so by default listening to solfeggio music (specifically designed to recreate the earth’s & human brainwaves) can help you feel at ease and change the your DNA!
Deleting social apps
Mindless scrolling is the most obvious of activities to remove from your day. I delete social media apps which immediately stops the scrolling for no reason. This then improved productivity because I am more focused!
Anytime gratitude & visualization as often as I can
Being able to take control of your self talk/the voices in your head is an important way to be mindful. Not letting negative self talk run a muck in your mind can be prevent by training yourself to see the good (have gratitude) and be positive (visualize something that would be help you think the opposite of the negative self talk).
So ….what is a running streak anyway? Essentially it’s a certain amount of time where a runner commits to running with no days off. Running more than anything is a mind game. It’s not about how fast or how far you can run…it’s always about taking the first stride, then the next and the next. It it’s about constantly reminding yourself about you why and finding the discipline to keep going.
Before I get into some of what I learned, I wanted to share a little about my steak.
I ran everyday, no days off
I ran a minimum of 2km, most days 3.33km and at least 1 5km run
I ran outside and on my treadmill
I live by my Nike Run Club app – I love that I can track everything there, I love that it captures my run details, cheers and guides me through different runs ++ I can see all the cool accomplishments I make happen!
Okay so here are the top 5 things I learned:
New habits should be approachable on a daily basis This means, your daily “to-do” run should be something you can do without thinking. Granted running requires different kinds of training (long runs, sprints/farlek, hills, cross training & recovery) but for a running streak you need be ready to go without having to think too much about it.
Learn to list to your body I am intuitive by nature, but my body gave me stronger messages when I ran consistently. I think thats a very important skill (tool?) to develop. It also made me become more aware of functional fitness and exercises that weren’t heavy but helped to developed the way my body moved.
Do the hard thing first When I got my run done in the morning, the rest of the day seemed to go much smoother and my mind was able to focus. The same happens when you have a personal morning routine (wake up early, meditate, journal, sunlight etc). Getting up (late) to only check email and hustle just doesn’t make sense.
You always do things twice, once in your head and then in real life Same goes for running. You literally see yourself doing it in your minds eye before you actually do it. For me it was seeing the trails or sideways I knew I’d run before getting out there.
Somethings can be multi tasked (but not everything) For me it was running an errand. LITERALLY! Being able to run to the store to pick up something and then running back home with that something was such a delight!
It was a GREAT 20 days of blogmas! I am pretty impressed with my ability, consistency and ambition. I think it was the longest streak of blogging I’ve had in a long time. For January, I’ll be returning to more regular yet less frequent blog posts. Maybe, it will be twice a week and centered around a new theme – I haven’t confirmed my creative process yet! :P
<Admin reminder for myself> I’ve also yet to share all the posts on Pinterest so that will take some time in January also. So between editing titles (taking out the word “blogmas”), promoting on Pinterest (and twitter & instagram for that matter) I know I’ll be scaling back. </end reminder>
So here is my first post – post blogmas! It’s a multi day vlog showing my routines & habits. All things I want to continue focusing on in the new year. Whether that’s nature works, morning workouts, journaling, reading, meditating, doing well in my career – it’s a reminder that my Focus and Intention needs be all about consistency. So hopefully it inspires others out there who want to start (or stay on …like me) the journey of their personal development and self growth.
We are 18 days out from 2023. I hope between the get togethers, holiday meals and gift giving your are making time for YOU. As a mom of daughters, with a full fledge and progressive career with ambitions of growing my business – goal setting has always been my thing.
But with the new year I definitely try to be more intentional.
Below is the process I’ve developed over the years + sharing my vision board capturing visual cues of all the areas I’m setting goals in (wellness, learning, career promotion, financial abundance, family, friends and world travel).
Retrospective on the past year: I use the life audit wheel and do an audit of the areas of my life that went really well (10) and the areas that I felt I could have put more effort towards or that could have gone better (1 being the lowest on the scale)
Write in words what the life audit showed me: This is really about writing down what went well and what didnt. So now you have two representations of the past year.
Get clear on what you want to achieve: Now taking the written retrospective, write down all the things you want to achieve. Be as detailed as possible. And also make room to jot down the feeling you have when you think about these achievements. And most importantly, write down actionable steps to get where you want to be (full disclosure: this will take you more than one sitting)
Pinterest, pinterest, PINTEREST! You are gonna grab all images that show you achieving everything you clearly articulated in step 3.
Make you vision board: Now you are going to make a visual representation of what you wrote in 3. Before you make your vision board, make a gratitude list, meditate, light a candle, clense your crystals – just be in the most receiving space you can be in! Once you love what you’ve created (also: this could take a few tries) PRINT it out, save to all of your desktop wallpapers & make sure you look at it multipe times a day.
You’ll notice a pattern here, we think, write and visualize. Repeatedly. Why? Because the brain can’t tell the difference between something actually happening/how it feels when you achieve something vs when you just think about achieving it & feel the feelings. Once you brain believes you’ve achieved it, you’ll starting behaving in a way and taking actions in the direction of that achievement.
BONUS: Do future journalling – everyday of the new year, potentially as part of your morning journalling practice. This is where you write down everything of the day as it it’s already happened (ie: these will be the actionable steps you wrote down in 3 aboce). Again tricking your brain into thinking you’ve already achieved the accomplishment but on a daily basis.
